Meet Bev

Bev Gallears joined our team as a personal care assistant in 2012; three years on and she’s taken her passion for care to new heights, building a career in care. Here, she talks about her journey with Complete Care.

I started out as a personal assistant with Complete Care three years ago. It was a simple decision for me; I was following my passion to help people to continue to live their lives where illness or an accident has affected them.

I hoped I could make a difference to people’s lives, perhaps just by being me; spending that little extra time learning about somebody’s needs, taking the time to talk to them, and showing them some compassion.

There are lots of things that I like about my job, but I really enjoy meeting new clients and working alongside them and their families to give the best possible, quality care I can.

"I started out just knowing the basics, but I soon realised that care wasn’t just a job to me – I wanted it to be my career. It’s often said that people are drawn to care as a vocation, and I think that’s true of me.I wanted care to be a part of my life – making a difference to other people’s day to day lives."

In the time I’ve worked for Complete Care I’ve progressed further in my career, taking every opportunity to learn and develop, and working with the nursing team to enhance my knowledge to ensure the care I’m providing to my clients is the best possible care that there is.

A year after joining I took a step up to become a Care Co-ordinator. The role posed new challenges for me – I was working with a client whose needs involved mental health care, brain injury and challenging behaviour.

Working with this client helped me realise my strengths and weaknesses, and the areas I needed to improve on. It wasn’t always easy, but I’ve always believed that being challenged brings the greatest reward – it spurred me on to be the best that I can be!

"​In the time I’ve worked for Complete Care I’ve progressed further in my career, taking every opportunity to learn and develop. It’s really encouraging to be able to see a clear pathway to building a career in care – with the right training, hard work and support."

I managed a team of seven personal assistants as a Care Co-ordinator; dealing with rotas, team management, filling extra shifts, managing absence and sick leave, all to make sure that we could provide consistent, quality care for our client throughout the day.

I had great support from my manager – she was always on hand to guide me, and supported me through relevant training programmes. And the team is always on hand to offer support and specialist knowledge. I recently spent some time with our team who specialise in brain injury, working alongside them and a wider multi-disciplinary team to create a better support network for my client and the care team.

The most recent client I’ve worked with has a spinal cord injury and requires a tracheostomy. I’ve worked hard to learn the new skills that are crucial to managing my client’s care needs, but I’ve also really enjoyed getting to know her as a person, and picking up on the nuances that will help enhance her day-to-day life. Sometimes it’s the little things that really make a difference.

I’ve recently been given the opportunity to take up a secondment to a more senior role as an operations manager – that means supporting a number of different clients, and working closely with the teams that assist them every day. I’m excited to get to meet more of our clients, and work with them to provide high quality care. It’s also really encouraging to be able to see a clear pathway to building a career in care – with the right training, hard work and support.

"Not a day goes by where I do not enjoy my job – it’s such a privilege to work with our clients, and provide the care that hopefully makes a significant and positive difference to their lives."